The invention relates to a device for separating contaminants out of the lube oil of an internal combustion engine with the device comprising a filter element, a centrifuge rotatable by means of the lube oil flowing through, and at least one supply passage for lube oil to be cleaned and at least one drain passage for the cleaned lube oil, with the filter element and the centrifuge arranged in a common, closable housing and with at least one of the filter element and the centrifuge removable from the housing when the housing is open.
A device of the kind mentioned is known from GB-PS 876 299. The common housing for the centrifuge and the filter element with this device comprises two separate chambers with the centrifuge arranged in one chamber and the filter element arranged in the other chamber. These chambers are connected with each other by passages. Furthermore the housing comprises two separate closing covers with one closing cover associated with the chamber containing the centrifuge and the other cover covering the chamber wherein the filter cartridge is arranged.
It is a disadvantage of the known device, that the housing requires a relatively large area for assembling, because two separate chambers for the filter cartridge and the centrifuge are provided therein. Furthermore an individual cover is provided for each chamber which causes a high labor and time effort for maintenance work, when the centrifuge and the filter cartridge have to be taken out of the housing.
A further device for the mentioned purpose is known from GB 21 60 796A. With this known device the filter member on the one side and the centrifuge on the other side are each arranged in a dedicated housing with the two housings arranged at a common mounting member. This mounting member comprises the supply and drain passages for the lube oil to be cleaned and the cleaned oil, respectively. In an embodiment of this known device the two housings for the filter member and the centrifuge are arranged opposing each other at two sides of the mounting member and pointing in opposite directions. Therein the housing of the filter member and the housing of the centrifuge are detachably arranged toward the one side and the other side in order to enable the replacement of the filter member and the centrifuge. With a second embodiment of the known device the two housings for the filter member and the centrifuge are arranged side by side at one side of the mounting member and are detachable in the direction of the one side. Also in this case, however, the filter member and the centrifuge each comprise a dedicated housing.
It is a disadvantage with this known state of the art that the manufacturing effort and the space requirement are high, because two separate housings have to be manufactured and arranged. Additionally the regular maintenance operations with a change of the filter member and a change or at least a cleaning of the centrifuge are both labor and time consuming, as two separate housings have to be opened and closed again.